What
I Have Failed To Do – A Sin
Richard Salbato May 18, 2011
At
the end of your confession you say the confession prayer, O my God, etc. In this prayer we say that we are Sorry for what we have done and what we have failed to do. Then we
promise to avoid the mere occasion of
sin.
The
object of this Newsletter is to address the sin of failure to do good. Consider the Good
Samaritan parable. The high priests saw
this man on the side of the road having been robbed and beaten and perhaps
dying. They blessed him and went on their way without helping him. In their
mind they committed no sin because they consider sin as what they do wrong, not
what they fail to do.
Now
consider the Bible story of Lazarus.
Now
there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen,
living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his
gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the
rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. It happened
that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's
bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried
and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I
am in anguish in this flame.
Again
consider that it was not what the rich man did but what he did not do. The same is true about the parable of the
talents:
To
one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to
his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The one who had received five
talents went off right away and put his money to work270 and
gained five more. 17 In the same way, the one who had two gained two more. 18 But the one who had received one talent went out
and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money in it.
When
the rich man returned he took account of what his people did with his talents
and to the one to did nothing he said:
And
throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth’ (Matthew 25:13-30).
271
This
man ended up in Hell not for what he did but what he did not do. When we go to confession to we confess only
what we did wrong or also what we failed to do wright? Let us consider the most
often sins of neglect.
We
are commanded to love God with our whole mind, heart and soul. Have we failed
to know God? How can we love what we do
not know? Considering that Christ is the
Word of God, can we love the Word we have not studied? Then there are the people who love some of
the Word, but not all of the Word. That
is like loving the beauty of a woman but not her true self.
In
all our lives we have responsibilities.
Even as a child we have responsibilities to obey our parents. In school we must obey our teachers. God gave us intelligence but it must be fed
to be useful to God. Have we failed to educate ourselves. Many of us take better care of our body than
we do of our brains. It is a sin to make
it hard for others to learn, but it is also a sin for failing to learn. Today
many do not care to learn because they believe the government will take care of
them.
Do
we fail to vote? More important than
that do we fail to educate ourselves before voting. My brother told me of a friend of his who
goes to Mass seven days a week, but only votes Democrat because her family only
votes Democratic and does not bother to learn what they stand for.
A
have a close friend who is Armenia Orthodox and I tested him on his beliefs. His
real beliefs are more Catholic than Orthodox and he did not even know it
because he did not know what the Orthodox doctrine was. Nonetheless, he will
not change religion because that is the faith of his family and friends. What
will God say when he dies?
Deliberate
ignorance is the greatest of all sins of neglect.
One
of the sins that makes me most angry is the failure of coming to the aid of
someone who is abused mentally or physically by others. How many times have I
seen on TV people standing by doing nothing as someone is beat up or mentally
abused. This failure to have courage is sinful because it is a love of self
more than a love of others. Christ said, Do
un to others as you would want them to do to you. If you were being abused
would want others to stand by doing nothing?
Parents
who spoil their children do so because they are too lazy and it is easier to
say “Yes” than to do the right thing. Parents who give up on their children are
giving up on the problems that they partially caused but do not want to pay the
price for what they failed to do. I am 72
years old but my children are still my responsibility. I am never
not their father and they are never not my children.
Think
about the priests and bishops who fail to teach sin and confession. What will
God say to them? Think about the priests and bishops who live in luxury but
want the government to take over the charity that God commanded of them. These
same bishops want us the think that government charity is more important than
abortion. Many say that breaking the law of immigration is not sinful because if
fills up their churches that would otherwise be failing.
If
we as Catholics were as charitable today as we were 70 years ago, our churches
would be filled by all the people we helped. But now we do not think that our
failures to do good are sins.
Richard Salbato
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